The danger is that if you tell the truth, people might assume that you're still lying, since apparently everyone does it. For example I put my real height on my online data profile, which is about average, but I worry that women see it and think I'm a short guy pretending to be average height, since lying about your…

Io9 had a good article a while ago about how it's essentially a show about how super-villains are formed. When you look at it that way, as opposed to constantly trying to justify the Walter's actions after the fact, then I think it gets a lot more fun.

Great post.

Did you just find the requests for real meetings creepy or the relationship fantasising too? I ask because I've always assumed guys who went to cam-girls rather than using porn were looking for more of a connection, so I don't really see the harm in the fantasy.

Good point.

"gross" "disgusting"

Meh, she's probably walking from her hotel to her car, and getting her photo taken immediately. If I was appearing on things called "24/7 paps TV" I'd be tempted to wear shit like that as an FU to all the scrutinisation. You want to watch me all day, every day? Fine, here's what you get.

France has marginally more women, and older actors, including less of an age gap between male and female stars. The US has more racial diversity, though I'm not sure if that's taking the percentage of ethnic minorities in the population into account.

Well there was that study from a while back which found that countries where girls did better at school, boys did too, even when accounting for other factors. It was a big "gender equality is good for guys too" thing which Jezebel pointed out. It's possible something similar could happen in this situation, though I…

"frush" just sounds like "thrush" with an east-london accent to me.

"George R.R. Martin loves to hang things in the air and then subvert audience expectations. There's really no way of telling what the ultimate fate of any given character may be."

What's that quote? The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about?

Take the ones out of that other thing you use when you're lonely.

So me having dom fantasies but also reading about real rape and its consequences on Jezebel every day doesn't "balance the scales" so to speak? That's...not what I wanted to hear. Ugh.

I got your analogy, yeah, it was you repeating yourself on the whole "causation not correlation" thing, which I've already pointed out I understand. Your analogy didn't work because, just like with violence and pornography, there is neither correlation nor causation, which makes it even easier to dismiss than when…

I am incredibly grateful that the whole pickup artistry thing didn't arrive until I was about 20. In my mid-teens I would have eaten that shit up and not looked back. When I looked for information on getting girlfriends as a teen it was all pheromones, hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming. I must admit, though,…

It always amuses me when my fellow gamers use "neckbeard" as an insult. It's really just another word for "unfashionable", but very few of us would ever deploy that one without feeling like a twit.

I think you're right, protecting people from others isn't the same as protecting them from themselves, and it should be a lower priority. I do think that's different to, say, putting health risks on cigarette packets. Or doing studies on unhealthy eating, then letting people make their own choices. Maybe that question…

I wasn't making sloppy generalisations, I was riffing on Bobloblaw's conclusion that more porn isn't always the answer. Also, I ended that statement with a smiley. Perhaps you should have taken it in the tone it was intended? Oh and the only way your analogy works is if someone suggested that global warming was…

"WAH I'M A WOMAN AND I MISS THE POINT JUST AS WELL AS ANY MAN!"